I am packing right now, on my way to the Mt. Lebanon school district in Pennsylvania, where I get to have the immense honor of working with their elementary staff for a whole day. My focus for the day is, of course, all about creating passionate learners – everything I have written about in my book, and I cannot wait to see the thinking, discussion, and ideas that will happen. I always get so inspired working with other teachers as well, what a great way to spend a Monday.
In the spirit of learning from others, I thought it would be great to give away a physical copy of my book Passionate Learners – How to Engage and Empower Your Students. I will even sign the winning copy! All you have to do to enter is leave a comment and tell me why you would like to read the book. (Your email does not need to be included as long as you put it in the comment box). I will pull a winner this Friday night, October 9th and will then send you the book.
So what is my book about? Here is the excerpt from the back.
Would you want to be a student in your own classroom? In Passionate Learners: How to Engage and Empower Your Students, author Pernille Ripp challenges both novice and seasoned teachers to create a positive, interactive learning environment where students drive their own academic achievement. You’ll discover how to make fundamental changes to your classroom so learning becomes an exciting challenge rather than a frustrating ordeal. Based on the author’s personal experience of transforming her approach to teaching, this book outlines how to:
• Build a working relationship with your students based on mutual trust, respect, and appreciation.
• Be attentive to your students’ needs and share ownership of the classroom with them.
• Break out of the vicious cycle of punishment and reward to control student behaviour.
• Use innovative and creative lesson plans to get your students to become more engaged and intellectually-invested learners, while still meeting your state standards.
• Limit homework and abandon traditional grading so that your students can make the most of their learning experiences without unnecessary stress.
And what are people saying about the book?
I hope you love the book!
Pernille Ripp 
As a middle school reading specialist, my every waking moment is devoted to devising innovative ways to engage and empower students; Admittedly, it even consumes my dreams. I’d love a copy of your book to read and share.
I’m returning from a two year medical leave and want to inspire and excite my students and myself as I do so. Your book and ideas would help with that. We start GRA on Wednesday ~ my teaching day as a stepping stone. 🙂
I am an Elementary School Principal and am always looking for material that supports attachment based teaching and learning. I would read the book and hopefully issue copies to faculty for this year’s PLC. It looks like feeds into what I know and value most about how kids can learn best.
I first learned of you and your work in a Twitter chat in my district. Since then I have been enjoying your blog,especially the one about admistrators. I’m an AP! My school is in year one implementation of PBIS and this would be great for our year two as we grow in what we do. Thx! Keep on keeping on!
Pernille – I am so excited to read your book! I attended Nerd Camp last July, and I haven’t stopped talking about it! I met so many amazing educators, technology enthusiasts, and incredible authors. I learned more among these allies in literacy education than I ever imagined! YOU were a standout! From your opening Nerd Talk, your passion inspired me! The slides were not in sync with your words, but you carried on with your important message of passion and teaching and learning… and of KNOWING! Knowing what drives our students, having the confidence to express it, and learning more about them to inspire them to be the best they can be. You encouraged educators to look beyond test scores to the child, the learner, the person. You inspired all of us – you inspired me to be better. I am excited to read your book because your blog, your story, and your passion inspires me to be a better teacher everyday. Thank you for being an inspiration and sharing your passion with me!
I am an educator/leader in a progressive private school and am always looking to learn from other successful educators. I think this looks like it would be a great book study for my teachers over the summer this next year! PLEASE PICK ME!
Entering into my 26th year of teaching one of my biggest fears is to get caught in a routine trap of doing the same thing year after year because it’s familiar. I want to always bring best practice to my students and help them to feel positive and hopefully passionate about their learning and growth.
Pernille, I’ve really enjoyed following your blog, and I feel such resonance when I read your posts. I’m grateful to be working in a school where we have a lot of support to create learning environments that work for students and teachers. Your book has been on my To Read list since I first learned about it. I think it has the potential to be a faculty-wide reading book for us. Thanks for your hard work and articulate writing about your trials, failures, successes, and philosophies!
Our best educator as teachers is our PLN. Unfortunately time is rarely, if ever given, for us to sit in on each other’s classrooms. I am always looking for new ideas, tricks of the trade, and tools for my classroom. I am sure your book will offer me plenty of fuel for my life long learning Fire.
I thoroughly enjoy your blog. This is my first year teaching 7th grade,so am looking for ways to engage this grade level. I think your book would be helpful as many of your ideas have been so far. Thank you for your consideration
Your book has been on my wish list since I first heard about it! I have learned so much about questioning my practices and truly putting students first from your blog. I’m not teaching at the moment, but my school has periodically asked me to come back to the school to do some peer coaching for inquiry-based teaching–and as I’m always sharing your blog posts, I would absolutely love to share your book with colleagues, too!
I am a veteran teacher of over 29 years, but I am newly excited and energized each day with the new things that I learn! I desire to be a more engaging teacher that brings learning to life for my students. I want each student to experience the learning of a lifetime! Thank you so much for all that you do to inspire!
I am a library media specialist from North Dakota. Your blog posts have inspired and challenged me. I expect your book will be no different. In an occupation where each day can bring highs and lows, keeping excited and energized about our kids is essential! Looking forward to reading your insights!
I am really searching for a way to go gradeless, your book might just have the answers I’ve been looking for!
Your approach to teaching, as I understand it, reflects and confirms my teaching philosophy. I would love to read your book and share it with my teaching colleagues who feel they must give up their passion for curriculum and testing expectations.
At the end of last year our staff collaboratively defined our new school goals: focus on community connectedness and assessment for learning. I would love to have your book as I beleive it will help guide and inform some of our practice in these areas. I would love to see it used as a book club selection for our teachers. Thanks for your continued passion!ll
I’m a fourth grade ELA teacher from Ohio. I had the privilege of hearing you speak at Nerd Camp this past summer. Your Nerd Talk shook me to my core and had me tearing up at so many moments because you were speaking the words of my heart.
You are such an inspiration and I can’t wait to read this book. Thank you for helping all of us find our voices as Educators who are passionate about making a difference and helping our students make a difference!
This is an area that I have been focusing on for a few years. You are inspirational and passionate about making a difference for students and I know I will learn a lot from reading your book!
I teach at a middle school in an area where students have so many issues to overcome each day before they are ready to learn. I would love to incorporate some new ideas and techniques to help them be successful!
Kia ora Pernille. Just love what you do – https://kerrithompsonblog.wordpress.com/2015/10/04/edblognz-week-1-no-3/
I know you have read it but this is why I would LOVE a copy of your second book:)
Hi! I’m a K/1 Mutli-Age Classroom Teacher, and, after seeing you at ILA this summer, I want a copy of any of your books:) I am invested in relationship building, but I know, In reflection, I need to tune into my students’ needs.
Passionate teachers create passionate learners and I know you are an incredibly passionate teacher, Pernille! I cannot wait to read your book and utilize your passion-making strategies!
I am coming back to fifth grade after a 9 year hiatus to stay home with my 3boys. I’m so excited to be back in the classroom. But with all the focus on state testing I feel the students do not get enough passion for learning in the classroom!
As a grade 5-6 teacher I love handing ownership of the classroom over to the students. I’ve learned so much from you already Pernille and I’d love a copy of your book to continue my growth. GRA here we come 🙂
Passionate learning is my goal for co-teaching Genius Hour with our Instructional Coach, Learning Resource Center Director and District Instructional Technology Coach last year. We are kicking it off again this year (still co-taught), and putting passion at the center of what we do. I also love to integrate Angela Maiers’ Habitudes (passion being one of them), and her ideas are very paralleled to your philosophies/beliefs and goals. (jennifer.katrein@d303.org)
I am a 33 year veteran teacher who is still going strong! I would love to make my students take more ownership in my room. I would love to have a copy of your book so I continue to grow as a teacher!
I love following you on Facebook, Twitter, and your blog. I can only imagine how inspiring an entire book by you would be!! This year I am working as a mentor for beginning teachers…I’d love to have your book as insight for me to share with them….we need to create more passionate learners…and passionate teachers!
Because I want to be THAT teacher – the one that makes a difference, the one that lights a fire within a student.
I am an elementary integration specialist at the largest Title 1 school in our district. I am amazed by the students in our school. They are truly leaders of their own learning. I would love a copy of your book to add fuel to the fire. Always a learner!!!
I am always looking for means to improve the learning that happens in our classroom-my students and my own. I think your book would hel me in this endeavor
This is my second year participating in GRA. Attending nErDCamp MI two years ago got me involved and I was so touched by your speech this past year! I would love a chance to read your book! Thanks for all you do to touch the lives of students and teachers!
Hi Pernille! Thanks for this opportunity to possibly win a copy of your book! The thing that first caught my attention was “Would you want to be a student in your own classroom?” Wow! That statement certainly makes me want to step back and evaluate myself as a teacher. I have been following you on Twitter and love what you have to say about books, reading, and teaching our children. I am interested in reading your book to learn how to create more engaging lessons for my students and really involve them in their learning. This year I have switched from being a middle school math teacher to being a self-contained 5th grade teacher, teaching all the core subjects (and some!). I am also very interested in abandoning traditional grading practices and am curious as to what you say about this topic. Thanks for planting seeds of reflection and curiosity in my teacher brain on a regular basis! I admire your commitment to education!
I have learned so much from you by following your blog and twitter. You are inspiration to me and I think that your book can help me be an inspiration to my students!
I started following your blog when you were posting about bullying in your school by other teachers. Something just clicked when I’d read your posts. I missed seeing you at the ICE conference in IL this past February and was bummed. I’d love to read your book as I’m passionate about creating community in my classes so all students feel welcomed. When students feel that you care and the room is safe they will be brave and try and that bravery and effort will make way for learning!
As a library media specialist I find myself at the intersection of many paths: reading, technology, collaboration. I am inspired by people like you Pernille, that take an idea and go with it. Our school book this year is “What do you do with an idea” and when I read it for the first time I thought of you and how important it is for one to believe in an idea, and go with it. Thank you for bringing GRA to all of us. I would like to read your book and learn more from your experince and passion for teaching. I would like to be a student in your classroom! 🙂
Your reflections on your blog have inspired me in my teaching and day to day life for about a year now, since I discovered you! I am passionate about teaching and my goal is that my students feel the same passion about learning. My greatest hope though, is that they step into my classroom each day feeling like they belong there. I think your book will help me continue to grow as an educator and continue to help shape my practice.
I often tell my colleagues, “If I’m not having fun, you can bet the students aren’t having fun, either”. Teaching is what I love to do and I am always looking for new ways to engage my students and keep them interested in learning. I attended a SAMRI camp in 2014 in my hometown and you were Skyping in as a presenter. I had no idea who you were but I was eager to learn and quickly discovered you were a teacher I could learn from. In a time of over-testing, poorly written textbooks, and political hurdles, your message of creating passionate learners is more important than ever. I would love to read your book and bring your great ideas into our school.I think it would be a great book to use it as a book study for the teachers. I have already introduced them to the GRA, and encouraged 10 classroom teachers to take part this year, so why stop now??
I am so inspired by your blogs. I have revamp my whole literacy block in hopes to get my 3rd graders to have a passion for reading! When I surveyed my learners 80% of them didn’t like reading…it deeply saddened me and I knew something had to change. You inspired me to stand up for what I believed in and out with the basel and in with book talks, time to read choice books, GRA, and growing my classroom library! Thank you so much for all that you offer! I can’t wait to read your newest book!
I have been following your blog for a long time, so I was thrilled to hear you speak at the International Reading Conference this summer in St. Louis.
I am a media/tech integration specialist and am always looking at more ways to engage and motivate students.
Thank you so much for spearheading the GRA! Can’t wait to get started!
I would love to read this book because I am trying to move toward a more student-centered classroom, and I need some ideas to help me with this. My students from last year’s class helped me redesign the classroom at the end of the year with alternative seating and different areas for students to explore their own learning. This year I am looking for new ideas to help my curriculum match the room design.
I am a high school English teacher at a rural school that suffers from long-running cultural apathy. After elementary school, literacy is not a priority. For the two years that I have been there, I have pushed independent reading choice in my classroom (even against administrator wishes). I need as many resources as possible to help me in this daunting task. This apathy also drags down our writing process. Revision is almost unheard of, even when it is required. A colleague and I are working on project to inspire more effective revision practices. I heard that your book had some wonderful resources in both of these areas, and I (and my colleague) would be grateful for a copy!
I am a passionate learner and and passionate teacher. I want to pass those traits on to my students, so they are inspired to do great things with the tools for life I am giving them.
Oh, how I want to win! I have followed your blog for a few years, and you amaze me! Thanks for sharing yourself so we may learn from you. I so want to build a passionate classroom. Thanks for a chance!
Amy in California
Dear Pernille,
I have been teaching for 14 years and until recently I have enjoyed everyday with my little learners. However the ever increasing push for data and testing is sucking the life out of learning. It is exhausting and no longer fulfilling. I am all for a push back from the insanity that has engulfed teaching and learners. I want to have my classroom back and the freedom to do what is right for my students. I want them to enter my classroom excited and leave as empowered excited learners. Your blog and the chance to win your book can begin to set right the educational path that has become crumbled.
Thank you opening the door to what great teaching is all about!
Lisa
I would love a copy of your book! I am always looking for ways to help students find a passion that develops into life-long learning. Thank you for all you do to support educators everywhere!
Loving GRA and would love to read more from the creator of it! I’m an early career teacher and am dedicated to my own pro-d!
Hi Pernille all the way from the bottom of the world in New Zealand. After reading @kerriattamatea’s blog of her journey inspired by your first book, I too long to read your second book to assist with my own journey in education and the classroom.
I’ve been following you and your work for years. I love your thoughts and ideas. I’ve worked to try to encourage the GRA in my school and have some teachers super excited about trying it. I would love to read about more of your ideas that you have to share.
It has become my goal to embrace this exact mindset in my classroom. Three weeks ago I kicked off our Hour of Empower which is all about passion, and it is driven by the passion within the students! It is because of educators such as you who sparked this in me. I’d love to have a copy of your book and learn even more.
Thanks for the giveaway. I would love to win a copy of your book. I’m a seasoned teacher, who understands the power of student ownership for learning, and struggles to trust that we will maximize learning opportunities without my careful planning of our days. Yep, I have trouble ceding control and have found your blog moves me along that path.